noted his cyberclock.
Mata Hari ’s holo nodded, then walked around Suit to stand beside the giant dragon shape of BattleMind. “We will protect you.”
“I know you will. And thank you,” he said, removing his mind from any linkage with BattleMind, and focusing on his nearby combat suit. Dizziness slammed into him as the stress of 15 seconds in ocean-time drained energy from his body. “Suit, lift me up with a tractor, then insert me quickly inside your interior. Now.”
The white ceramic armor of Suit, adorned with several wolf’s heads icons, bent forward as it rear entry zippered open for him. At that instant Matt felt invisible forces lift him up from the Interlock Pit, pause briefly for the Pit’s fiber optic cable to unlink from his neck, then swiftly his combat ally swung him over and down into the interior of Suit. A fiber optic cable quickly socketed into his neck and Matt resumed his human-slow awareness of the fading battle thousands of kilometers from his ship. The rest of Hexagon Prime fleet had vaporized every slaver starship, every slaver Remote and the thousands of tiny KKVs and assaultBeads that had been ejected by the Defense Mode systems of the slaver ships. Leaving only the small remnant of ship Dodemeron that floated a few kilometers from his ship’s crocodile snout. He pushed his feet into the heavy boots of Suit, snugged his arms and hands into exoskeleton units, and felt his shoulder laser pulse-cannons whir into Ready Mode. He rose on boot Nullgrav toward the Bridge ceiling.
“Mata Hari, pouch me out past the flexhull and pressor guide me to the Bridge bubble of Captain Markel’s ship.”
“As you wish, Matthew.”
In two seconds he was in dark space, moving swiftly toward the silvery grey remnant of the habitat globe. His enemy’s last refuge resembled a crescent moon piece of metal surmounted by a bubble that contained the Bridge of ship Dodemeron . His mind felt the Tactical CPU of Suit make velocity computations, vector alignments and the emission of its own pressor beam to stop Matt just three meters from contact with the Bridge bubble.
“Mata Hari, have your complink make the Bridge skin transparent.”
“Done, Matthew,” she said as the optical matter of the bubble became transparent.
Before him stoo d the black-whiskered, black-furred, two armed and two legged body of Captain Markel of Nest Perilous from the world Rocky Talus. The giant rat occupied a Command Booth in the middle of the small Bridge, its fingerclaws resting on ship controls that no longer did anything useful. Its scaly tail was laid over one shoulder. The long black whiskers flared apart in the sign of Anger Displayed. Too bad.
“Captain Markel, I am Matthew Dragoneaux, a Vigilante who seeks the extermination of your kind,” Matt said, his radio speech translated into Belizel by Mata Hari.
“Your name sigil is known to me,” the Spelidon biped said in harsh Belizel. “From the public broadcasts of your attack in Omega Centauri. And from the Thuringia planet broadcast that branded you an enemy of the Anarchate. Your activity in Orion Arm is why I took my ship here, to this base in Sagittarius Arm. How did you locate this place?”
Matt felt amusement at the Spelidon’s choice to ignore the loss of most of his ship, and his own impending death. Well, the time for amusement was past. “The location of this base and of 23 other such locations elsewhere in the galaxy were recorded in the NavCore memories of the 312 slaver starships we destroyed during the annual rendezvous near Alkalurops.”
The black eyes of the giant rat blinked hurriedly, then stayed open as it stared at Matt’s face, now visible through Faceplate. “How much longer will I live?”
“That depends on your answers to my questions. Good answers will ensure a swifter death. Bad answers will guarantee a long, painful death,” Matt said, making sure Suit was recording every detail of this encounter.
“Your questions?” Markel
Mata Hari ’s holo nodded, then walked around Suit to stand beside the giant dragon shape of BattleMind. “We will protect you.”
“I know you will. And thank you,” he said, removing his mind from any linkage with BattleMind, and focusing on his nearby combat suit. Dizziness slammed into him as the stress of 15 seconds in ocean-time drained energy from his body. “Suit, lift me up with a tractor, then insert me quickly inside your interior. Now.”
The white ceramic armor of Suit, adorned with several wolf’s heads icons, bent forward as it rear entry zippered open for him. At that instant Matt felt invisible forces lift him up from the Interlock Pit, pause briefly for the Pit’s fiber optic cable to unlink from his neck, then swiftly his combat ally swung him over and down into the interior of Suit. A fiber optic cable quickly socketed into his neck and Matt resumed his human-slow awareness of the fading battle thousands of kilometers from his ship. The rest of Hexagon Prime fleet had vaporized every slaver starship, every slaver Remote and the thousands of tiny KKVs and assaultBeads that had been ejected by the Defense Mode systems of the slaver ships. Leaving only the small remnant of ship Dodemeron that floated a few kilometers from his ship’s crocodile snout. He pushed his feet into the heavy boots of Suit, snugged his arms and hands into exoskeleton units, and felt his shoulder laser pulse-cannons whir into Ready Mode. He rose on boot Nullgrav toward the Bridge ceiling.
“Mata Hari, pouch me out past the flexhull and pressor guide me to the Bridge bubble of Captain Markel’s ship.”
“As you wish, Matthew.”
In two seconds he was in dark space, moving swiftly toward the silvery grey remnant of the habitat globe. His enemy’s last refuge resembled a crescent moon piece of metal surmounted by a bubble that contained the Bridge of ship Dodemeron . His mind felt the Tactical CPU of Suit make velocity computations, vector alignments and the emission of its own pressor beam to stop Matt just three meters from contact with the Bridge bubble.
“Mata Hari, have your complink make the Bridge skin transparent.”
“Done, Matthew,” she said as the optical matter of the bubble became transparent.
Before him stoo d the black-whiskered, black-furred, two armed and two legged body of Captain Markel of Nest Perilous from the world Rocky Talus. The giant rat occupied a Command Booth in the middle of the small Bridge, its fingerclaws resting on ship controls that no longer did anything useful. Its scaly tail was laid over one shoulder. The long black whiskers flared apart in the sign of Anger Displayed. Too bad.
“Captain Markel, I am Matthew Dragoneaux, a Vigilante who seeks the extermination of your kind,” Matt said, his radio speech translated into Belizel by Mata Hari.
“Your name sigil is known to me,” the Spelidon biped said in harsh Belizel. “From the public broadcasts of your attack in Omega Centauri. And from the Thuringia planet broadcast that branded you an enemy of the Anarchate. Your activity in Orion Arm is why I took my ship here, to this base in Sagittarius Arm. How did you locate this place?”
Matt felt amusement at the Spelidon’s choice to ignore the loss of most of his ship, and his own impending death. Well, the time for amusement was past. “The location of this base and of 23 other such locations elsewhere in the galaxy were recorded in the NavCore memories of the 312 slaver starships we destroyed during the annual rendezvous near Alkalurops.”
The black eyes of the giant rat blinked hurriedly, then stayed open as it stared at Matt’s face, now visible through Faceplate. “How much longer will I live?”
“That depends on your answers to my questions. Good answers will ensure a swifter death. Bad answers will guarantee a long, painful death,” Matt said, making sure Suit was recording every detail of this encounter.
“Your questions?” Markel
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